How to Have A Successful Breast Cancer Awareness Retail Event

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and serves as a good reminder to women everywhere to get their annual mammograms!

According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, more than 200,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer across the United States and approximately 43,000 will die.

The sad truth is that mammograms do save lives, and if breast cancer is detected early enough, 95 percent of those diagnosed would live. So why are women not getting them? It’s due to the fact that there is simply not enough money for public education.

The good news is, as a retailer, you can help make funding available for early detection programs by hosting your own Breast Cancer Awareness Event! Such an event will, not only, help raise money for a worthy cause but increase awareness of your business and your philanthropic footprint in your community.

How to “Get in the Pink” & Raise Money for Breast Cancer

One way to raise money is to retail pink themed products. This can be anything from clothing, fragrance, jewelry, bath & body care, etc. Whatever you choose, talk to your wholesale vendor about your fundraising idea and see if they’d be willing to help out somehow. For instance, some companies provide their retailers with a percentage off on pink themed merchandise to allow you to mark up your products in such a way that you will be able to give a portion to charity and pass the savings on to your customers to boot!

Some wholesale vendors will offer and incentive to help retailers set up their own breast cancer giving campaign and promote their pink products.

Time to “Think Pink” – Putting Together Your Breast Cancer Event

If you choose to donate proceeds from sales, you will need to determine what percentage and to what organization you will donate to. For instance, you can donate 10% of the proceed from the sales of pink products to the organization of your choice or you can donate 5% and give the other 5% as a discount to your customers. You can donate to a national organization or you may choose to donate to a local organization. (For a list of reputable breast cancer non-profits, visit www.CharityNavigator.com) . Whatever organization you choose, make sure to contact them and let them know about your event. Some will require you to fill out a licensing agreement beforehand so they can provide you with the necessary information you will need to provide your tax preparer at the end of the year or may to provide you with guidelines to use their name/logo.

Once you have your pink products, it will be important to create a display that is eye catching and tells your customers about your cause. Things like pink breast cancer awareness ribbons, pink posters, and other pink props will help draw attention to your display and let customers know your intent. When ordering your products from your wholesale vendor or when you contact your non-profit partner, ask them what they may have in terms of helping you promote your event? They may have breast cancer artwork, ribbons, or bags that can be used to promote your event.

Hold an open house – Have all of your employees wear pink hats or clothing. Host the open house with pink foods, pink champagne, pink lemonade, etc.

Play “Pink Trivia”– Tailor trivia questions to pink-specific items and offer pink prizes or pink coupons for future purchases. This is a fun idea that you can either do with an open house or online with your social media following by posting a question a day for the entire month of October on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Get the media involved – With all the dreary news lately wouldn’t it be nice to give your local news or television station something positive to talk about like your event that is helping in the fight against breast cancer! 🙂 Write a press release and get some free publicity for your event!

Whatever you do to support breast cancer awareness, remember that you are helping to raise vital funds that will educate the public. So, let’s all do our part to make a difference this October!

Have your own ideas for supporting breast cancer awareness? Share them here!